Happy birthday and many thanks for years of pleasure!

I can’t let 23rd April go by without raising a glass*** to Saint Immortal Bard on the occasion of his birth (and death) day.

*Whilst raising that glass a few Bardic glass quotes were trawled for (courtesy of Google)

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another; (Sonnet 3)

My glass shall not persuade me I am old,
So long as youth and thou are of one date; (Sonnet 22)

There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass. (King Lear)

I’m sure there are many more…??

Cheekily, I want to dredge up a couple of reviews from my back catalogue, wonderful fictions both, with Will as the central character, vibrant, subtle, entertaining and profound as his plays

Firstly, Jude Morgan’s The Secret Life Of William Shakespeare, which amongst its other delights creates a real, believable relationship between the young Will and Anne Hathaway, by giving Anne real substance and persona

And secondly, combining fantastic attention to the dark and and plot obsessed Jacobean society post-Gunpowder plot, with a mature Shakespeare brought out of retirement to write a new history play, and some wonderful ‘in the rehearsal rooms’ invention is Robert Winder’s The Final Act Of Mr Shakespeare

I supped both these up with delight, gusto and absorption, and both are placed firmly on the ‘keepers’ bookshelf, destined for re-reads